Browsing by Subject "raja"

In knowledge-intensive work, knowing and learning are integrated in numerous ways with other areas of activities. On the other hand, the work itself and workplace learning are multiform phenomena. These factors can manifest themselves as rhetoric tensions, paradoxes or gaps between public discourses, private discussions and empirical experiences of working life. The main focus of the discussions and studies on working life is often directed towards development and learning. Less attention is given to daily mundane activities and routine tasks or problems. This study is stimulated by tensions and gaps between the views of working life expressed in public debate, in the research literature as well as in the empirical experiences of employees. The study focuses on everyday working life practices, in which various phenomena from different theoretical traditions are connected to each other to form heterogeneous configurations. This study applies theoretically open and empirically based approach so that the issues of everyday working life are not shaded under dominant discussions or pre-adopted theoretical frameworks. The aim of this study is to form a conceptual model based on empirical data on what is going on in everyday working life. Classic grounded theory was used as a research method because it is a data-driven approach that produces conceptual knowledge. The data was gathered in open interviews with ten men and women of different ages who represented a variety of professional groups, educational backgrounds and work organisations. The interview data contains information about everyday working life in the form of events, experiences and thoughts such as those told by the workers themselves. The results of the study form an abstract model, which is named border faring theory. This theory is formulated on the basis of empirical data and it explains, by border and related concepts, what is going on in everyday working life. The core concept of the theory is border faring – a process that includes the steps of pressurising the border, activating the border, and manoeuvring on the arena of exposure as well as updating the premises of border faring. The border, in turn, is understood as a setting for the border faring process. The setting includes five discrete but inter-related elements: the area of preconditions, the area of supply and the area between the last remaining areas, called the arena of exposure. These areas are separated by two borders, called the border of preconditions and the border of supply. This view of the border differs from those concerning working life or workplace learning where borders are treated as single entities. The areas of preconditions and supply give border faring premises, which can be divided into themes of valuing, being and state of affairs. The border of preconditions or the border of supply can be activated in two ways: the border is opened in the direction of the arena of exposure or the border is locked. On this basis, the activation can be classified into the principles of border opening, border locking and the principle allowing both opening and locking. The features of the arena of exposure are organised as paired characteristics, and manoeuvrings on the arena of exposure are represented as typology. The aim of border faring is to seek continuity by using, searching, finding, retrieving, providing, fighting, refusing, securing, exchanging and sharing – in other words, by combining in different ways different resources of areas of preconditions and supply in various settings for border faring. In connection with the process of border faring, the setting for it will also change. The desired continuity can be by its nature, stabilising or altering. It seems that working life studies and discussions emphasise the breaking of boundaries instead of stabilising or consolidating them. The border crossings are justified by learning or development needs, even if the crossings can lead as a whole or for the future to negative consequences. Among the studies that utilise the concept of the border, border faring theory advocates the view that borders and border-related activities can be both valuable and problematic. Instruments such as border faring theory are needed for studies on workplace learning and development activities because of their indirect, unforeseen and undesirable effects. The settings of border faring apply to various participants differently, resulting in diverse border activities. Different tactics are used at the arena of exposure and various combinations are implemented, and thus a variety of outcomes are generated in terms of learning and knowledge. So, for all parties, border crossing does not necessarily always mean learning or development in the desired direction. According to border faring theory, borders are crossed for various reasons and common motives or objectives are not always a guarantee of proactivity. Borders are also maintained to ensure learning, development and task performance. Border faring is an approach to cope in everyday working life and it can be applied to the examinations of dynamics and settings of daily practices we well as interactions of working places. The model with two borders illustrates how performance can be easy or laborious, and why changes, development projects or daily routine tasks are sometimes difficult and long-lasting processes. Border faring theory presupposes neither change nor maintenance in advance as desirable for the state of affairs. To working places or communities, the theory provides a starting point for development tasks and activities to enhance reforms and tools to detect and support existing good practices. Border faring theory can be applied in addition to working life to other areas, such as formal education. To scientific research activities, the ideas and concepts of border faring theory can serve as starting points or stimuli to new studies. The concept of the border is a useful tool in working life research and its practical applications, but in the increasingly complex world of working life, the border and border-related activity are understood as a more diverse phenomenon as single borders, their characters and border crossings.